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This paper extends the “sources of growth” explanation for the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) proposed by Copeland and Taylor in a concise theoretical framework, that is, when the sources of growth are transformed from physical capital and labor to human capital and knowledge, the environmental pollution could at first rise and then fall with a sustainable growth in per capita income. Using the provincial panel data from 1995 to 2017 in the mainland of China, an empirical analysis is carried out by the System Generalized Method of Moment (sys-GMM). The results show that: first, the EKC hypothesis exists in China. The inflection point for SO2 emissions has been passed in all of the provincial regions, and for CO2 and comprehensive environmental pollution losses have not been passed in some regions, but the inflection point from the national average level in China has been passed; second, the main production factors of the traditional economy, physical capital and labor, are positively correlated with environmental pollution, while human capital and green technological progress, the main production factors of the knowledge economy, are negatively related to environmental pollution; third, human capital and green technological progress have become important factors to promote economic growth, and human capital, in particular, has become the primary factor, which indicates that China is in the process of transforming traditional economy into a knowledge economy. The stage of China’s economic development and the trend of environmental pollution is consistent with the extended “sources of growth” explanation for the EKC, which proved the theoretical hypothesis. This has an important practical significance for China’s current economic reform and important theoretical value for the economic transformation and sustainable development of developing countries. The paper finally puts forward corresponding policy recommendations.

It is generally believed that research and development on green technology are difficult, but this paper finds that the gap in green technological progress between the central and western regions and the eastern region in China is significantly smaller than the gap in technological progress, and the per capita green GDP of the central and western regions caught up with the eastern region significantly faster than the per capita GDP. This paper proposes that the comparative advantage of human capital level in the central and western regions is the reason why these regions choose the direction of green technological progress, and the choice of the direction of green technological progress in the central and western regions may further bring about the backwardness advantages of green development in these regions. Through the system generalized method of moments (sys-GMM) estimation, empirical research using panel data from 29 provinces as well as the regional panel data in the mainland of China from 1995 to 2017 proved the above proposition. Specifically, due to the comparative advantages of human capital level, the central and western regions have chosen the direction of green technological progress; further, the central and western regions will obtain greater benefits of green GDP growth from the green technological progress, that is, the green technological progress enables these regions’ backwardness to take advantage from green development. This is a useful supplement to the theory of sustainable development and the theory of backwardness advantage.

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